November 06, 2018

What are you creating for your special 'tin anniversary'? How can you create a tintype from an old photograph or digital file? Can you make a tintype of an old wedding photo? YES! We create tintypes of your special day to preserve your heirloom memory. Now offering special wooden display stands with the option to add text!

December 05, 2014

Not sure what to gift for the holiday? We have gift certificates for sale that you can gift to make this year an easy gifting season. Our gift certificates are available in three different sizes, we can create a custom gift certificate if you prefer. To create a custom gift certificate email Jen at digitaltintypes@gmail.com and she will help you get your order under way. If you would like to order directly from our gift certificate page, simply click this link! Happy tintype holiday!

November 26, 2014

What are you gifting your family this holiday season? We all have that box of old photographs tucked away in the house. Surprise your family this year by creating tintype and ambrotype photographs that will become heirlooms your family will cherish. We are happy to create custom pieces, and do offer expert restoration of old photographs if that is needed. contact Jen at digitaltintypes@gmail.com to get started or click to upload for tintypes or ambrotypes! #bestgiftever

November 19, 2014

Surprise mom or grandma with a pendant she will just love this holiday! Shipped ready to wear in a silver tone pendant and sterling ball chain, or pendants are made with your photographs turned into a miniature tintype. Make a gift for her this year that she will wear all year long! #bestholidaygift

November 13, 2014

One of the main reasons that we launched Digital Tintypes was to help connect families near and far. The most rewarding part of our business is that we are able to connect our military families with their loved ones while they are deployed. We also are so proud to create tintypes of veterans from this generations and generations past for all our military families. We are happy to honor our service men and women, and offer a discount on any military image uploaded to create a digital tintype. If you wish to upload any military image of your loved one, simply enter VETERANPRIDE in the discount box at checkout and receive 25% off any digital tintype. Please note this is limited to images of military service men and women in uniform, but is not limited to any era.

October 28, 2014

There are a few tintype apps out there for your smart phones. Two of the apps actually make pretty neat digital images. We wanted to take a closer look at the benefits and differences between the two apps and see which of the two make better digital files for output.

First the new TinType app available in the app store. This app allows you to shoot an image or upload a pre-existing photograph from your camera's photo stream. Once your photograph is taken or uploaded, you have a couple of options for editing your image. You can adjust the tintype to be in black and white or in color, the color is reminiscent of painting photographs with pastels in it's tonality. You can also enhance the area around the eyes to change the intensity. This feature really seems to simply enhance the contrast around the area that the app selects as 'the eyes'. If your tintype isn't a portrait, then there is no selection to be made. You can crop the tintype to be in a square or rectangular format, or add the degree of grain to your plate that you prefer from messy to neat. Finally, you can adjust the depth of field on your tintype which allows for you to direct the point of focus and fall off the plate.

self portrait created with the TinType app

The Tintype plug in for the Hipstamatic app is the second of the two tintype apps that we feel create the most interesting digital tintype images. This plug in is very popular in the Hipstamatic line of snap packs. The tintype plug in is limited in that it does not allow you to edit your images, however, it does create very interesting, square format tintype images. The depth of field is fixed and can not be edited after it is shot. You can shoot color image, but this selection has to be chosen before the tintype is taken. One benefit of the Tintype plug in for Hipstamatic, is that the images are saved directly into your photo stream, and not in the app.

self portrait created with the Tintype snap pack for the Hipstamatic app

Other differences, the TinType app allows you to rotate the camera so that you can easily take a self portrait. The camera is fixed to a single side with the Tintype snap pack for Hipstamatic, which makes it difficult to get a good self portrait on the first try. The Tintype snap pack for Hipstamatic does allow you to hold the camera much closer to the object you are photographing than does the TinType app. With the TinType app I felt the the range of focus was limited to 12" and beyond, but when I used the Tintype snap pack for Hipstamatic I felt I could hold the camera about 6" and beyond.

Tintypes made with the TinType app are roughly 3.5 MB, while tintypes made with the Tintype snap pack for the Hipstamatic app are roughly 1.2 MB. We are now going to be exposing both of the above images to create real tintypes to see how they compare side by side made with actual silver! More to come!

October 23, 2014

Earlier this week Hipstamatic released a new version of their tintype app, available in the app store. This addition features the ability to crop in a rectangle, adjust the tonality of the image, add color and distressing as well as cropping capabilities. It is a fun improvement on the previous version and we love it! So now that you will be making tintypes on your phone how will you print them? Well why not send them to us and let us turn that digital tintype into a real deal tintype that you can hold?

From the Hipstamatic tintype app to a real deal tintype you can hold in your hand! Get started with you upload here